I'm Smarter Than You Think
by PyroStorm
Summary: To Amity Park and quite a few other people, Jack Fenton is the bumbling idiot. But Jack is a lot smarter than people give him credit for  after all, a tiny cut on Danny Phantoms arm was all Jack needed to figure out why Danny had been acting odd.[Oneshot]


I set myself a task a couple of weeks back; I wanted to write something about Jack Fenton that showed a more intelligent side of him, but still kept little sparks of the Jack we all know (ghost-obsessed and loves cookies and fudge). This is all from **Jack's point of view**, and it's as though he was talking to someone about it. If there's any way I can improve my 1st person writing style, let me know. Enough rambling from me, however; let's get to the fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, or any of it's characters.

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A lot of people think I'm stupid. Maybe you do too. 

I may not be the smartest person alive, but I am certainly not the stupidest, no matter what I act like.

Because that's all it is; an act, a façade. You see, I'm smarter than a lot of people think.

You see, Jazz assumes that I'm just a person who has a childlike enthusiasm for ghosts, cookies and fudge. I am a person with a great liking of those things, but I'm _more_ than that. Maybe one day in the future, Jazz will work it out – I'm sure she will, she's bright (certainly smarter than me!), knows where she wants to go with her life and is well on her way to getting there. I'm proud of her, she's doing so well!

And then there's Danny, my only son. Yes, he gets average – and less than average – grades, yes he misses curfews, yes he misses out on his chores (which I _still_ have to do – but I don't mind now); but I can't find words to explain how proud I am of him.

After all, not many people know that Danny – my son Danny – is Amity Parks ghostly hero. Don't look so surprised that I know, I worked it out a while ago.

But before I tell you how I worked it out, let me tell you about just after the portal accident. Maddie and I knew that Danny had had an accident of some kind when he was down in the basement looking at the portal, but all of us – Jazz, Maddie and I that is – assumed he'd just suffered an electric shock. But no-one knew that … that the portal had actually … _half-killed him_.

But I'm getting off track. Shortly after the accident, his grades began slipping, he was constantly late for lessons (and because of this got lots of detentions, which he was still late to), and he was forever choking the air with excuses for everything – why he didn't tidy his room, or wash dishes, or clean occasionally.

It would be unfair to say that it was just me getting worried about Danny; Maddie was, and is, more worried than I am. Jazz was for a while, but then she started making excuses for Danny. Maddie and I got even more concerned then – what was Danny doing? Was it illegal? Dangerous? Did it have something to do with ghosts?

Alright, stop complaining. I'll tell you how I figured it out.

It was during a fight between Danny and a metal ghost (who, as a side note, had some very powerful weapons). Maddie and I had heard the sounds of the fight even in the basement, and being experts on ghosts (alright, we were just curious) we decided to go and have a look.

We had just stepped outside and hidden (well, as much as possible in my case) around by the rubbish bins standing on the kerb when the two came into view, both floating up by Danny's window. They exchanged words for a few minutes, before the metal ghost seemed to have had enough and shot a beam of blue energy from a gun at Danny.

It was a short fight; a few blasts were thrown, and the end result was Danny getting a cut on his arm (tearing through his sleeve in the process) and the metal armour of the other ghost being completely ruined, leaving a small (and very unimpressive) green blob, which promptly shrieked angrily and zoomed off around the corner, Danny close behind. Maddie and I gave chase for a while, but the two spectres were too fast for us to keep up with. We went back home, tired from the non-stop running.

The next morning I was rummaging through the cupboards, desperately trying to find the tin of fudge that Maddie had hidden when Danny shuffled through the door and promptly walked into the table. I watched him out the corner of my eye as he sluggishly moved around the table before opening a cabinet door and searching through the various things in there.

"Morning, Danny!" I boomed, startling him enough to send a small packet of plasters tumbling down onto his head.

"Morning Dad …" he replied, picking up the plasters and retrieving one from the box. He carefully unwrapped the covering and put the plaster on his arm, where there was a red cut, tinged with green, which was just beginning to heal over.

"How did you get that cut, son? Did a ghost get you?" I asked, and of course leaping to the natural conclusion that ghosts were the roots of every single problem.

"Er…" Danny looked very uncomfortable then, but quickly recovered with a hasty "I caught myself on, er, something when I fell out of bed!" Behold the hardly believable excuse which I of course believed.

I was about to reply when Danny looked at the clock, then at me apologetically "Sorry dad, I said I'd meet Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger at eleven – I'm kinda running late." I sighed noiselessly and nodded to show it was fine. He left the room.

Danny poked his head around the door. "Oh, and by the way; check behind the bread. That's where the fudge is."

I grinned. "Thanks, Danny!" I shouted after him before racing to the fudge.

I spent the rest of the day ambling around, working on a few of the inventions scattered around the house. Maddie had taken Jazz to a meeting at Casper High and Danny was out with Tucker and Sam, so I had nothing else to do.

I was working on the Spectre Speeder when something clicked in my mind. _Danny's cut had been in exactly the same place as Phantom's had been. _I sat up (narrowly missing smacking my head on the Speeder), my mind racing with theories for once.

Danny Phantom's ectoblasts were green, so his ectoplasm must be green – at least, that was what the theory was. Danny's cut had been red (human blood) but tinted in some places with green (ghost ectoplasm?). So that would mean that Danny was half-ghost. Half-_ghost._ Half dead. But how…?

My gaze was drawn to the portal. Of course. Danny being shocked by the portal. That must have caused him to be half-ghost. Everything made sense now – his excuses, the lateness, and the falling grades. He fought ghosts and kept Amity Park safe. I felt very emotional. My son … was - is - a hero.

But I couldn't tell him that I knew – it might cause too many problems for him. So I made a decision then. Every weapon, every invention I would explain to him in great detail so if he needed to use them he could. I would make my already bad aiming worse, so I wouldn't hit him with a weapon during a fight (I'd still need to act out that I hated Danny Phantom though). When the Ghost Gabber (and later the Boo-merang) targeted him, I made sure to claim it was faulty or had a problem.

I try to help him as much as I can. But it's not much …

But now you've heard how I know this. What I'm doing because of this.

So am I smarter than you thought?

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Hope you liked! 


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